Picture this. You want to open a bank account. So, you reach the website or physical bank of your choice, key in details into your phone and when prompted to submit documents, you simply bring the phone to eye level and a scan of your iris finishes off the process.

The next step, your scan is authenticated by Aadhaar and you have a valid bank account.

Deshmukh wants Indus OS to be the bedrock of this transformation as the world’s first regional OS — and India's second largest — becomes the first of its kind Aadhaar-authenticated OS.

"Indus OS will use iris biometric technology for the most secure identification and authentication modality and it supports 12 Indian languages," Deshmukh told ET, adding that the company tied up with California-based and Intel-backed Delta ID, global leaders in iris-based authentication technology, to create capability.

"We expect to launch the platform this quarter and empower over 1billion Indians enrolled for Aadhaar," he added. The Aadhaar-authenticated OS will be released across the company's smartphone brand partners, including Micromax, Intex, Karbonn, Celkon and Swipe, Deshmukh said. Deshmukh expects 100 million to be using it by 2020.

The way the technology works is that the software-hardware combination captures the IRIS ID information through an iris scanning camera built into the smartphone. The OS then encodes this information and then encrypts it, sends it to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) server for a match. Once the UIDAI server confirms the Aadhaar number, the consumer is authorised to utilise it for a whole suit of activities.

The technology' is best suited for India, which is the fastest growing smartphone market in the world and one that is increasingly striving towards a less cash economy. The Indian government wants to grow this user base and enable people to have access to financial services and other benefits by using low-cost or entry-level smartphones.

The challenge could be cost associated with putting technology and OS into smartphones, which handset manufacturers would have to bear. But Deshmukh claims manufacturers would see advantage in adopting this technology. "They may see cost of making go up by only $2-$3 apiece and high volumes would bring this down to one tenth to one twentieth."